


Sit Next to Me

by sketchypotato



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: 2nd year eiwata, M/M, sorry I edited it AGAIN
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 13:56:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20640299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sketchypotato/pseuds/sketchypotato
Summary: Wataru joins fine.





	Sit Next to Me

It's just like a dream.

In fact, Eichi can't be sure that it isn't. Not in his weakened, half-conscious state, when the walls blur together but his view of Wataru is startlingly clear. It feels like an extended Christmas present, or maybe, Eichi thinks darkly, he never did wake up after that day, but it is no matter. Wataru tosses a deck of cards into the air, the cards landing in an inverted pyramid carefully balanced on one hand, and all Eichi can do is smile weakly in appreciation.

"Why are you here, Hibiki-kun?"

"The reason is unimportant." The cards become roses, a bouquet gently placed on Eichi's lap. It makes him want to sneeze.

It's the same question, the same answer every day. Maybe Eichi's subconscious isn't creative enough to come up with another one. But even so, the tricks that this Wataru performs seem so beyond Eichi's ability to imagine, even in a dream. Nothing from his own mind could make him feel so alive.

"A jester lives to entertain the Emperor, regardless!" Wataru cheers, scooping up the bouquet into a conveniently empty vase. Confetti starts to rain down on the both of them, Wataru flashes a smile, and Eichi hopes that this is just a dream, so that he doesn't need to be embarrassed at how his face heats up, or the sickly sweet smile that he definitely wearing right now. 

And then Wataru's face is right above him, his hair forming a curtain around them, mouth in a mischievous grin. The curtain parts and the strands tangle themselves into elaborate braids suspended in mid-air, and Eichi let's himself laugh as much as his lungs would allow him, eyes scrunching up until he can barely see.

He feels a pair of lips brush against his forehead and he thinks, _ Ah, so this is a dream after all. _

_ Thank goodness._

* * *

It starts with this.

Wataru is at the hospital on the day after the most important performance of his life so far. It is quite natural to feel concerned when you see someone coughing up blood, regardless of who that person is, and Wataru is more human than people think.

But he doesn't go in. He sits on a tree branch that allows him to look through the window into Eichi's ward, and he observes as he sleeps. From his view, Eichi looks dead to the world, if not for the beeping of the monitor beside him, or the fog that periodically clouds his oxygen mask.

He doesn’t intend to stay for long, not for a simple check to make sure his enemy still alive. Except Eichi isn’t actually asleep, and when Wataru looks up from adjusting his balance he finds Eichi’s eyes meeting his. It catches him off guard, and yet Eichi doesn’t even look surprised, his eyes crinkling in the most genuine smile Wataru has had directed at him for a long time.

Wataru is a performer by nature, and audiences are hard to come by nowadays, when most of them are either dead or currently detest him. And yet Eichi’s wistful gaze is so tempting, practically begging to be entertained. Perhaps for this one time, he can ignore that their story is supposed to have ended, and improvise for an audience that doesn’t think he’s actually there.

But that’s not all.

It starts with a cold Christmas night with no one else to spend with, when the rest of the Eccentrics are simply “not in the mood”. Eichi too, is a lonely child, which makes visiting him the perfect ambush, and the way he reacts to Wataru’s tricks is entertainment in itself.

This time Eichi is truly dreaming, though it seems to be more of a nightmare, from the way he sweats and mutters in his sleep. A nightmare that even Wataru can’t enter. Or maybe he can, with some mysterious power he didn’t know he had, as he gently smoothes Eichi’s furrowed brows and feels him relax as a result.

“Hibiki-kun…” he murmurs, face softened into a gentle smile, and Wataru feels his chest clench like never before.

When Eichi wakes up, the room will be filled with Christmas decorations, and a blue-haired Santa ready to draw out the laughs of a very surprised, very grateful child.

Perhaps he could come over more often.

It starts with a darkened room on a day where Eichi doesn’t smile. Wataru sees Eichi sitting up in the dark and notices that it’s one of _those days_, and quietly keeps away the confetti he had planned to scatter on his entrance. He would leave too, for no smiles or cheers will come out of this today, if he hadn’t unintentionally made eye contact with Eichi, if Eichi hadn’t mouthed “_Come here_”, drawing him to his bedside.

Eichi suddenly grabs his braid, pulling him forward. It catches Wataru off guard (an occurrence that is supposed to be rare, yet keeps happening with Eichi,) and he lets himself fall, hears Eichi let out a wheeze as Wataru lands on top of him, both collapsing back onto the bed. Wataru could easily move out of the way, slip out of his grasp, but Eichi feels fragile, brittle, as his arms lock themselves around Wataru’s waist, his head buried into Wataru's shoulder, and Wataru finds himself caught in some sort of awkward hug.

It does get uncomfortable, as the minutes tick by, as Eichi doesn’t move, and Wataru cannot even tell if he is asleep from this angle. He should get out, at the very least to prepare for the next day, but the slightest wiggle makes Eichi hold onto him all the more tightly.

“Stay.”

Wataru glances down, shifts his head to get a better view, but it seems that Eichi is still dreaming, his eyes shut tight.

“I’ll stay,” whispers Wataru, and he feels Eichi’s hold on him loosen, just enough to allow his escape. Yet Wataru realises that he no longer wants to move.

After all, Wataru only exists to fulfill others' dreams. He knows what Eichi wants most of all.

It starts with _fine_.

* * *

A few days later, Keito sees the form on the Student Council President's table, and his glasses break.

* * *

"Why did you do that?"

The form feels like sandpaper in his hands, his grip on it too tight, words wrinkling into nonsense. What should be a dream feels like it is a nightmare, from how unreal it is, from how badly still he wants it.

"I do many things, Eichi! You're going to have to be more specific."

"You can't join a unit that doesn't exist."

Wataru swipes the remaining flowers out of the air in one movement, disappearing them into God-knows-where. "But _ fine _ still exists. Even if the members are no longer active, you have yet to have the chance to file the documents for disbandment, have you not?"

He looks him in the eye, and Eichi turns his head away, to look at anything else, except there's only cold hospital walls and wilting flowers and the form in his hands reading "New Member Application, Name: Hibiki Wataru", and Eichi isn't sure which is more unpleasant.

"What do you want, Eichi, more than anything else?"

He looks up, and suddenly Wataru is too close, lavender eyes filling his entire vision, breath clearly felt on his face. It's a leading question, Eichi knows, but he gives him the answer he wants.

"To be an idol."

"And to perform as an idol in Yumenosaki _ now _, you need….?"

".....A unit."

"And to have a unit you need-" 

"I get it." Eichi closes his eyes. He can feel the bed shift, the increase in warmth as Wataru sits next to him. When he opens them again, a hand is extended towards him.

"Do you want this?"

Oh he does.

To stand on the same stage as Wataru, not just once, but over and over again. To be on the same side of the battle, to perform without the necessary bloodshed, to perform with love. Eichi doesn't deserve this, a destroyer of dreams, to have his own wildest ones fulfilled. One day he will wake up to have it all taken away, and the more he indulges now, the more painful it'll be when he falls.

But Eichi is greedy. The dream is bleeding into reality, and it is so easy to just take what's in front of him.

"As the last remaining member the the original _ fine,_ I shall be the leader." Eichi starts, cautiously taking Wataru's hand in his. "Once you join, it will not be so easy to leave."

"That should not be a problem." Wataru flicks his wrist, and then what lies in Eichi's grip is not his own palms but a pen. Eichi wonders how he could still look so excited, chin in hand, gleefully waiting for Eichi to sign away his fate, and the pen feels heavier than it should. Eichi carefully traces his name onto the form, barely finishing when Wataru picks up his hand, pressing a kiss to his knuckles.

"You're mine now." Eichi blurts out, his voice still shaky. To say it out loud makes it feel all the more real. If he is going to accept this fantastical reality, he is going to cling onto it as much as he can, and he closes his grip on Wataru's hand.

Wataru merely smiles.

"I'll be in your care."

* * *

A new uniform, a new _ fine. _An image of himself that Wataru had only seen so far in his imagination, yet the feeling of wearing it is so real. Wataru poses in front of the mirror, then experimentally summons a dove from his sleeve, letting it perch on his shoulder. Not bad. Not bad at all.

"How do I look?"

Eichi is also dressed in the new uniform. It's only marginally different from the previous one, but Eichi has insisted on the new designs, and to have them precisely tailored to their measurements. He nods, taking in Wataru's appearance, but he still looks unsettled.

Well that will not do.

"Is something the matter?"

"Not at all," Eichi says, but Wataru knows to follow his eyes. There is still one thing that hasn't changed, one last bit of his previous costume that needs to be left behind.

Wataru twirls, and in the same movement his hair is released from it's ponytail, cascading down his back, longer braid and all. Eichi takes a step back, half in shock and half to avoid the hair flying at him, and Wataru takes a bow.

"How's this?"

His hair is all let down now, save for his two braids. It's different feel from his usual image, but Wataru sees the sparkle return to Eichi's eyes, and that is all he wants.

"That is quite an uh, Amazing look on you," Eichi giggles softly to himself, and Wataru can't help but light up at that too, "But wouldn't that braid get in the way?"

Eichi is has a point, even if it's just an excuse to pick up the aforementioned braid. The braid unties itself in his hand anyway, and Eichi drops it in surprise, letting Wataru catch the strands, loop them into a bun in one spin, and deftly secure the coil to the side of his head. This part of his dramatic nature will never change, even as they enter a new chapter of their lives.

"Voila! And now it doesn't. Does this suit your fancies better, Emperor?"

It takes a few long moments for Eichi's look of surprise to turn into a smile. He tilts his head, chin in hand.

"Yes. I think I like it quite a lot."

And with that Wataru is satisfied. Besides, he finds that he likes the whole look too, as he takes one last look at the mirror. The fine outfit suits him surprisingly well, as if he was meant to wear it all along, with its shiny trim, the movement of the tassels as he sways, the white and gold and blue and

Ah.

The purple will have to go.

**Author's Note:**

> i never thought i would write eiwata. their speech patterns scare me. My 10th reread of dance floor while playing foster the people did sth to me *waves hands around vaguely*. . .. . Sorr y
> 
> Also sorry for editing this like 5 times after publishing it if you're rereading this somehow don't worry you're not hallucinating it's just how I am
> 
> Twitter @spacetier


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